GUWAHATI | Assam Leader of Opposition Wazed Ali Choudhury on Wednesday said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s recent remarks on the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election indicated that the BJP remained uncertain about its prospects in the constituency. Choudhury said the Congress’s successive victories in Nagaon and the constituency’s demographic profile posed a challenge for the ruling party ahead of the October 6 bypoll.

“The CM spoke about this. He had previously stated that winning the Nagaon constituency would not be easy for the BJP. This is because the Congress had won there in two consecutive elections, and also the demographic composition of the population does not favour the BJP,” Choudhury said. He claimed that the BJP was making efforts to reach out to Muslim voters despite traditionally depending on a predominantly Hindu support base.

“The BJP is a communal party. It focuses solely on its own vote bank, believing that its support base consists only of Hindus. They are trying hard to secure Muslim votes this time. Yet, there is uncertainty about whether Muslims will actually vote for them,” he alleged. According to Choudhury this uncertainty was reflected in Sarma’s assessment that the Nagaon seat would be difficult for the BJP to win.

Sarma had on September 7 said Nagaon was not tradition- ally a BJP stronghold and that the party would focus on improving its performance across the constituency’s seven As- sembly segments rather than predicting victory. The chief minister had also pointed out that the BJP lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election in Nagaon by around 2.5 lakh votes.

The Nagaon Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi joined the BJP and subsequent- ly won the Dispur Assembly seat. The by-election is scheduled to be held on October 6, with both the BJP and Congress expected to intensify their campaign in the constituency in the coming weeks.